![LALC Vice President of External Affairs Raeanne Li (11) explains the International Phonetic Alphabet to attendees. "We decided to have more fun topics this year instead of just talking about the same things every year so our older members can also [enjoy],” Raeanne said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSC_4627-1200x795.jpg)
![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
After six weeks of building a robot to compete in regional competitions in San Jose State University (SJSU) and UC Davis, Robotics completed its “build” season on February 20.
Its regional competition at UC Davis will last from March 17 – 19, and two weeks later, the team will compete at SJSU from March 31 to April 2.
“To be perfectly frank, my objective this year is to win the annual regional competitions and qualify for the national competition in St. Louis,” Executive President Peter Gao (12) said. “We’ve been only semifinalists and finalists in the past year, but you have to be on the winning team and take first place to make it to the national competition.”
For the first time, the competition will include a “minibot,” which will autonomously race up a pole for bonus points at the end of the round.
“Now, we have two robots, and one of the things that we’re having trouble with is programming the minibot, because we have to do it at the right time,” Nicky Semenza (9) said. “It looks a little bit more complicated than competitions in the past.”
Last year, most of the parts to build the robot were not shipped until the fifth week, resulting in last-minute scrambles to complete the robot.
“This year, we decided to do all of our manufacturing in house,” said Jay Reddy (11), Vice President of the Electronics subteam. “That meant that we had a working robot by week three or four, and we could tune it to the point where it was equivalent to parts that we could have bought, but we manufactured them in lab, so we have more control over the production process.”
The competition, “Logomotion,” involves robots placing elements of the FIRST logo, a red triangle, white circle, and a blue square, onto rungs.
“After performing, prototyping, and testing, we were able to come to a bunch of components that worked, and we were able to assemble them into a final design, and it worked,” Simon Orr (10) said. “This year’s competition is more of a repeat of a competition from a few years back. We looked at what people did a few years back, and people who won.”
The robotics room was open until 9 p.m. on weeknights and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on the weekends and during February Break. Team members were encouraged to attend for a few hours, while Presidents and Vice Presidents remained there for most of the day.
